CBS Radio: Mason Steps Down, Fernandez to Lead

Andre Fernandez

Broadcast veteran Andre J. Fernandez has been selected to succeed CBS Radio President/CEO Dan Mason, who announced his retirement Monday morning. Fernandez will begin his new role next week, and will be based in New York, where he will lead CBS Radio’s 117 stations in 26 markets. Fernandez will report to Leslie Moonves, President and CEO of CBS Corporation.

Fernandez was most recently President/COO of Journal. Prior to his work at Journal, Fernandez held several financial leadership roles at General Electric Company. After the GE/NBC acquisition of Telemundo Communications Group in 2001, Fernandez was named Sr. VP and CFO of Telemundo. Prior to Telemundo, Fernandez worked as CFO and Controller of GE Latin America, CFO of GE’s Digital Energy business, Assistant Treasurer of GE Corporate Treasury, and CFO of GE Capital Information Technology Solutions. Fernandez began his career on Wall Street as a banking associate for Brown Brothers Harriman in New York, then as Assistant VP with Merrill Lynch’s emerging markets group. Fernandez graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He currently serves on the boards of the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) and Froedtert Health, an academic medical center and regional hospital system in southeast Wisconsin, where he is Vice Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Finance Committee and Member of the Leadership Development and Compensation Committee. He is a member of the Greater Milwaukee Committee (GMC).

Dan Mason

“Andre is a terrific executive who brings a wealth of experience to this role – operations, financial management, programming and digital distribution, among many other attributes,” Moonves says. “He has had great success working in large and mid-sized markets, which has primed him to lead our major market operations.”

“CBS is an exceptional media company, and this is a terrific opportunity to join a world-class operation and continue its growth and innovation,” Fernandez says. “I’m very impressed with not only CBS’s collection of market-leading brands, but the interface it has achieved with its complementary TV and digital assets, which gives us great opportunities for further development.”

Mason spent 17 years with CBS, including leading CBS Radio for 15 years.